But enough about what the Washington Establishment said about Ronald Reagan. That was 40 years ago when he challenged President Ford. Let's talk about now and how the Washington Establishment continues to brush Trump off as a mere celebrity whose ignorance will destroy the Republican Party and if, God forbid, elected president, he will start World War III.

My take is that if a person does not want to vote for Trump, fine. I respect that. If you want to leave the party as a matter of principle, I am OK with that.

However, the Never Trump crowd is another kettle of fish that need to be fried. If you write for the oldest conservative magazine in Washington (National Review) yes, you are are part of the Washington Establishment. That is how it works. If you are a Fox News contributor based in the nation's capital, you are are part of the Washington Establishment. Ditto the Weekly Standard. Ditto a host of think tankers. Stop pretending you are some sort of renegade. You live in the American Versailles. You are part of it.

Backing Cruz is another tell-tale sign of Washington Establishmentarianism. Except for his five years as solicitor general of Texas, Cruz has spent his adult life in Washington, clerking for Chief Justice Rehnquist, working in the Bush 43 White House, and in the Senate. In between working in all three branches of government, he landed gigs at prestigious law firms and married a private wealth manager for Goldman Sachs who had gigs in the Bush 43 White House as well as at JP Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch.

There is nothing wrong with the Washington Establishment except a $19 trillion national debt, a string of wars, the rise of the Islamic State, the tanking of the economy, borders that are unprotected, and free trade agreements that have forced Wal-Mart to quit its "Buy American" policy.

For all their malarkey about the free market and capitalism, few in the Washington Establishment live in that world. They get huge salaries from tax-exempt corporations that survive on tax-exempt donations.

Their ignorance of how capitalism works showed this year. In the marketplace of ideas, they lost. For all their huffing and puffing, they could not blow Trump down because his ideas trumped his personality. Got that? The only Cult Of Personality is that of Cruz who frankly is another empty suit, only he comes with a Bible.

His promise of running a constitutional government is laughable. We already do. Congress writes laws, the president carries them out, and the Court decides whether the laws pass constitutional muster. Yes, the Roberts Court upheld Obamacare, but it also struck down DC's gun law and McCain-Feingold. You may disagree with the Court but that does not make the rulings unconstitutional.

Nor does opposition to Trump make you more conservative than me.

Free trade?

Patrick Buchanan pointed out that from Lincoln to Coolidge (and of course, Hoover) Republicans and conservatives stood for protective tariffs.

During his presidency, Congress passed and Abe signed 10 tariff bills. Lincoln inaugurated the Republican Party tradition of economic nationalism.

Vermont’s Justin Morrill, who shepherded GOP tariff bills through Congress from 1860 to 1898, declared, “I am for ruling America, for the benefit, first, of Americans, and for the ‘rest of mankind’ afterwards.”

In 1890, Republicans enacted the McKinley Tariff that bore the name of that chairman of ways and means and future president.

“Open competition between high-paid American labor and poorly paid European labor,” warned Cong. William McKinley, “will either drive out of existence American industry or lower American wages.”

To paraphrase Archie Bunker, mister, we could use a man like Bill McKinley again. The economy thrived.

Coming in June -- "Trump the Press: Don Surber's take on how the pundits blew the 2016 Republican race."

74 comments:

"There is nothing wrong with the Washington Establishment except a $19 trillion national debt, a string of wars, the rise of the Islamic State, the tanking of the economy, borders that are unprotected, and free trade agreements that have forced Wal-Mart to quit its "Buy American" policy." I note that the debt is because the pols will spend money whether they have it or not (mostly NOT), and the borders are unprotected because THEY don't want to, or to be able to.

Most of the votes for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders represent a vote against the establishments of both parties. If it is Trump against Hillary Clinton expect Trump to win in a landslide from those who reject the failed status quo.

The hatred has escalated. Today the WSJ pushed the Democrats to either dump Hillary or add Saunders to stop DT. Fear anger betrayal. What ever happened to the good old days when you could write some feckless high sounding drivel in the morning and be fed your favorite scraps from the table by your master at noon, in your own bowl too. If he gets in Trump will be the best thing to happen to the US since Saint RR

I have come to believe "fair trade agreements" create an international way to redistribute our wealth.

After successfully doing that within our borders it is only fair that we give some to other nations that do not have our freedom, liberty or capital system. In other words, share with the losers of the world.

We have no obligation to share the wealth America has created for herself with others. There's no obligation of "fairness" here. The losers are losers because they are losers. If they want to stop being losers, they have America to use as a template. They do not have to invent from scratch a system that, though imperfect, works pretty well. We offer them that. They just need the will to adapt it to their own situations. However, if they prefer to copy Venezuela instead of the USA, I say good luck with that; when you run out of food and toilet paper, don't say we didn't warn you.

Two Chinese fighter jets flew within 15m of an American reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea this week, in the latest of military encounters deepening friction and fears of an accidental clash between the two powers. Tri-County Sun Times http://thevillagessuntimes.com/2016/05/21/fighter-jets-buzz-us-plane-in-south-china-sea/

Yes, I have. Think back to April 2001 when the Chinese tested the new President Bush during his first year in office by forcing down an American reconnaissance plane over international waters. That event created an enormous foreign policy crisis---and distraction---that lasted through the rest of the year up to the attack on 9/11. People who claim Bush took his eye off the ball leading up to 9/11 forget that he was still grappling with the threat of Chinese aggression against its neighbors.

Romney was "establishment" by inheritance. His father was a "Rockefeller Republican" who opposed Barry Goldwater and spread the same kind of smears about Goldwater as Mitt Romney has now about Donald Trump.

George Romney was a Governor and ran for Vice President and President of the United States. His son was a Governor, tried to be a Senator (while slamming Ronald Reagan's legacy) and tried twice to be President (or 3 times if you count this election cycle - will he or won't he until Jeb Bush threw his hat in the ring). He was the Republican standard bearer in 2012.

If that doesn't make Mitt Romney "establishment", I'm missing something.

According to Don, Reagan is not conservative since Reagan's deficit is part of that 19 Trillion.

Meanwhile, Trump, the man that wants socialized healthcare and for PP to be funded by taxpayer money, is .... what?

He isn't conservative. Conservatives have principles. Trump has what?

Trump believes in the use of eminent domain for confiscation of little old lady's homes so that billionaire's can have more parking space for their limos next to the casino's that are subsidized by tax breaks so that the proletariat can gamble away their kid's college money to make the billionaires with bigshot Government connections that much richer.

So Don, whatever party you are in, I'm proud to not be in it. My party, Reagan's party, is the party of principles that work--conservative principles.

Your party is the party of the crony capitalist crooks. I guess I will call that the "establishment". Whatever it is, it is not conservative and neither are you.

While you have your right to your opinion on the merits/lack of merits of Trump, that was what we had several primaries for and the 16 other candidates all had their opportunity to contrast and compare themselves to Trump as well as spending tens of millions in negative ads against him. I think the real question is if the rank and file of the party select a nominee, do we support that person or do we allow "Big Party" to dictate to us that we really don't know what is in our own best interests and insist we accept someone else who they in their superior intellect decide is better for us. That does not sound like Conservatism/Liberty to me. It sounds more like a Liberal view that the people do not understand what is in their best interests so we on high have to limit their freedom and have them do things our way. I think it is time for people with "conservative" principals to stop campaigning against Trump and start supporting him, however distasteful some might find that approach.

While you have your right to your opinion on the merits/lack of merits of Trump, that was what we had several primaries for and the 16 other candidates all had their opportunity to contrast and compare themselves to Trump as well as spending tens of millions in negative ads against him. I think the real question is if the rank and file of the party select a nominee, do we support that person or do we allow "Big Party" to dictate to us that we really don't know what is in our own best interests and insist we accept someone else who they in their superior intellect decide is better for us. That does not sound like Conservatism/Liberty to me. It sounds more like a Liberal view that the people do not understand what is in their best interests so we on high have to limit their freedom and have them do things our way. I think it is time for people with "conservative" principals to stop campaigning against Trump and start supporting him, however distasteful some might find that approach.

1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control <early instances of army fascism and brutality — J. W. Aldridge

Sounds more like your position than mine if you think the will of the people should be ignored and an "autocratic centralized elite" should dictate to us who we should have as a nominee despite what people voted.

Crawl back into a shell. The stupids won. The specials did not. This is religion without faith. The reasons Trump is winning, beyond policy, are he's happy, warm and doesn't care what I think. Or you believe.

His desire to go 'back to the 1920s' is flat-out wrong & demonstrates a massive ignorance of economics.

Tariffs are always harmful for a developed economy.

Yes, Reagan protected Harley. It was a mistake.

As a result, the US motorcycle industry (Which largely consists of Harley as a near-monopolist - BRP/Polaris is Canadian) is A DECADE OR MORE behind the rest of the world in terms of product-quality/technology used.

We 'protected' Chrysler with tariffs for decades. They now need a federal bailout every 30-40 years.

Tariffs make domestic firms WEAK by relieving the pressure of creative-destruction...

Similarly, the 'writing is on the wall' for manual-labor as an occupation. Self-driving cars, automated factories...

No government policy will 'protect' the economic missing-links that are Trump's base from those forces...

The driving force behind #NeverTrump is not some nefarious 'establishment' - it's people who are sick-and-tired of the government 'protecting' people as a way to buy their votes.

NO ONE should be protected... Not the Democrat's 'victim coalition' - NOR the waah-waah-I-want-the-50s-back blue-collar Trumpsters...

So as the election has come down to picking the most conservative Democrat, Trump is who we should vote for. His record is that of a RINO from the NYC liberal establishment...some inside outsider I suppose. Trumpeter was able to glide to victory because of 16 other "Conservatives" who lost when too many Independents and Democrats influenced the outcome of the early, open primary selection process.The Smoot-Hawley Act started a trade war that,combined with tightening of the money supply, resulted in a trade war that devastated trade, increased crippling unemployment, caused bank failures, and led to many xenophobic,socialist totalitarians known for desperately seeking scapegoats and starting WW II.

What color is the sky in your world? How many moons are there? Smoot Hawley was passed 6 months after the market crashed, and repealed more than a decade before WWII ended the Depression. What put the "Great" into the Great Depression was the appalling collapse of money in circulation. That's why the "Dollar was King" in the Depression - there weren't any. There had been "panics" before and recessions since, but the astounding collapse of money in circulation destroyed the economy. You might wanna google "Helicopter Ben" - former Fed chief Bernanke famously said he would drop money out of helicopters if need be to prevent another Depression.

Bravo! It really frosts me that National Review et al tries to determine for the stupid rubes what conservatism is. Trump, while no more perfect than the rest of us, is an excellent example of a conservative.

Exactly. I believe there are big headlines in our future - declaring we've all been poisoned for years. Something in the water or the air is making millions of people incredibly, willfully obtuse. The detachment from reality and common sense that is so prevalent today is alarming. Perhaps dementia afflicts nations like it does individuals.

The base is taking back the Republican Party. The Never Trumps at National Review and Weekly Standard have become irrelevant dinosaurs. They don't represent the New Republican Party or New Conservatism where the most important issue is NOT which bathroom Bruce Jenner uses.

But it is their sanctimonious screeds, and their patronizing mansplaining to the rest of us, that is so obnoxious. They have PRINCIPLES doncha know! (meaning we don't) They have no sense of self awareness, of how badly out of step they are. Politics is about building winning coalitions. They have utterly failed at the only job they've assigned to themselves. A little "creative destruction" of these self proclaimed Capitalists would go along ways right now.

Trump is no Ronald Reagan. Yes, the liberal press may have thought Reagan was ignorant, but they were grossly mistaken. Reagan knew history and the Constitution and quoted from the Founding Fathers even in "off the cuff" comments. Reagan's view were grounded in a cohesive conservative philosophical worldview that made him very predictable. Trump has no consistent philosophical grounding for his views; he's just an in-the-moment, fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants pragmatist. As is typical with demagogues, he is able to rouse the passions of the discontented (in many cases because he touches on legitimate grievances). However, anyone who's paying attention can come to those insights. (I mean, how smart to you have to be to no that Obama's administration's deal with Iran was "stupid."). Unfortunately, his shallow grasp of basic constitutional & conservative pinciples make him grossly unqualified for the office he seeks. These things are painfully apparent those whose thinking is grounded in consistent conservative and constitutional principles. Unfortunately, there are not nearly as many of those types of people in the Republican party as we thought.

Everything you know about Reagan is hindsight. In 1980 no one knew what he would do. But the people trusted him and with a bit of foresight that the elites lacked, elected him.Today the same kinds of negative things are being said about Trump that were said about Reagan. But the people trust him and with the same uncanny foresight they showed in 1980 will elect him president.

Great article. All the elite-parasite Republicnas are essentially negating democracy by it supporting the choice of the voters. The worst of them all is the empty bag Marc Levin whose fiancee's son worked for Cruz but 'arc did not disclose. Talk about hypocrisy and cronyism!

The article before this on RealClearPolitics.com has Fred Barnes still trying to get Paul Ryan to run third party. Trump has exposed so much and so many as being worthless and out of touch. Everyone in DC should be scared.

There is so much wrong with this article it is hard to know where to begin.

First, Cruz is the establishment? He spent his entire career fighting the establishment. Nobody has gained more hatred from those in the establishment than Ted Cruz because he is willing to fight for smaller, less expensive government. In fact, as the Republican field continued to dwindle to two viable candidates the establishment ultimately refused to get behind Cruz because they felt they could make more deals with Trump, where Cruz would force real change to Washington. Where one lives or what company one works out is not in and of itself an indicator of what one believes or what one will fight for. Such an argument is the height of intellectual laziness.

Why did they believe this? Just look at Trump’s track record. He spent his entire career funding the Washington establishment. He got rich off of bribing politicians, used bankruptcy laws to avoid his responsibility to his creditors and when he wasn’t arguing in favor of single payer healthcare (which would dramatically empower the Washington establishment) he was testifying before Congress on the virtues of crony capitalism. Specifically, he complained of the 1986 tax reform act because it lowered rates while eliminating tax deductions for real estate investment. Trump could no longer piggyback off the federal government to pay his creditors lower rates of returns.

Under a President Trump the crony gravy train will ride more smoothly than ever. And what says ‘crony’ more than protectionist trade barriers? Such laws only serve to raise the price of the goods and services Americans buy while large corporations get to pad their bottom line. If the government were to slap on a 40% tariff on Carrier air conditioners after they move to Mexico who do you think pays for it? You and I do in the form of higher prices. If they stay in the United States and the government protects carrier from foreign competition with higher tariffs or other trade protectionist measures, what do you think happens? The American companies are shielded from competition that forces prices lower. Either way the American consumer – and hence the American worker – loses.

Donald Trump has taken all his supporters for a ride. First he said he was self-funding. Then he said that he won't self-fund the general election. Now he is saying the money he spent on primary was a "loan" to the campaign to be repaid to Trump with donations from Washington establishment cronies.

Donald Trump bailed on the last debate before the Iowa caucus and instead held a fund raiser veterans groups. He claimed he raised $6 million dollars ($1 million from Trump himself and $5 million raised from other donors). Not only did he lie about that, but he the vet groups that he donated to said they received a fraction of the money Trump reportedly gave to those groups. Now one has to wonder if Trump’s $1 million donation is now considered part of the loan given to his campaign.

Does this sound like a man who will bring real change to Washington? I didn’t think so.

I voted for Cruz. This is purely a yes or no question now. Do you absolutely, positively want your grandkids to be members of a socialist cookie cutter society whom their great, great grandparents would never sanction?

Agreed. Heck, "Never Trump" is frightfully unaware of how little influence it has with the entire party base. Parties in general have become toxic. They are entirely too wrapped up in self preservation at the expense of the electorate. Perhaps it is the dawn of the independent candidate.

Don Surber's opening statement comparing Donald Trump to Ronald Reagan, is ridiculous. Ronald Reagan, said "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican"; Trump's primary campaign did nothing but that. Reagan was a two-time President of the Screen Actors Union and worked with the FBI to root out communism within the union. From that enlightening experience he evolved into a "Conservative", declaring so in 1962 - 14 years before running for president. During those 14 years, proving he was a deserving convert: he supported Barry Goldwater in 1964 (see his "A Time for Choosing" speech), he was republican Governor of California (66-74), and as POTUS he broke the USSR and is widely known as the standard for modern day Conservatism. On the other hand, Donald Trump, a Real Estate Billionaire started his “dubious” business career on 3rd base (given at least One Million Dollars by his father in the early 70's - ten million dollars by today's standard), he was (until very recently) a live long "New York Democrat" - supporting Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Shumer, he publicly stated within the last few years, in support of Bill DeBlasio (the “Progressive” mayor of NYC), that Bill DeBlasio will make "not a good mayor, but a Great Mayor" - look how that has worked out). That statement seemingly preceded his conversion to a “Republican”. Oh!., and Trump, who spoke ill of a fellow Republican and war hero, John McCain, ducked the Military Draft at least four times during the Viet Nam War and Reagan enlisted during WWII. So, we are asked to consider that Trump is another Reagan. THAT IS REALLY FUNNY!

When you have a trade deficit you obviously didn't set up a fair deal. Imagine having a friend in which you trade items. The only stipulation is for every item he gives you, you must in return give him three. The items cost the same. Just how long is that friendship going to last?

Bush senior with his statement of, "We will raise Mexico up." is a joke, commerce always goes to where it's less expensive if all things are otherwise equal. How anyone with any commonsense could have bought that argument is a moron.

When you have a trade deficit you obviously didn't set up a fair deal. Imagine having a friend in which you trade items. The only stipulation is for every item he gives you, you must in return give him three. The items cost the same. Just how long is that friendship going to last?

Bush senior with his statement of, "We will raise Mexico up." is a joke, commerce always goes to where it's less expensive if all things are otherwise equal. How anyone with any commonsense could have bought that argument is a moron.

The so called "conservatives" in the Never Trump gang have destroyed the conservative movement by demonstrating it is infested with pompous elitists who care nothing about the thoughts and aspirations of the common man. The common man votes for Trump and thus receives never ending scorn and ridicule from those who claimed to represent him. These "conservative" elites don't represent the common man. They are shills for themselves and they can't field a popular candidate. The "conservative" movement destroyed itself this election and it's not coming back.

John Boehner - MISTER Establishment called Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh".

John Boehner - MISTER Establishment says that Trump is his "texting and golfing buddy".

WHO is establishment, again?

Ted Cruz called Mitch McConnell - his own leader - a liar on the Senate floor after McConnell lied to him.

Ted Cruz shut down the corrupt government to fight Obamacare. He is hated by his own party for that to this day. Not because he did any damage to the party, but because he exposed the establishment as the corrupt weaklings that they are.

So you have a choice: You can either vote for Hillary or you can vote for the guy who gave Hillary money.

Don't talk to me about your supposed Conservatism for supporting Trump. You don't get to define what Conservatism is.

Trump is a used car salesman who will throw in a free bottle of snake oil with any purchase.

Good Lord, listening to you people gives me flashbacks of listening to Obama supporters in 2007. Can you really not see that?